Shit’s On Now
There is now an official beer refrigerator on the property. Here's a picture of the fridge (sp?) that's in the basement:
makin' it cool
Marvel at its ability to extract internal heat from items (i.e., beers) and leave them cold to the touch. Magic! See how it stands free of cumbersome generators and complicated machinery. Self-contained! Super! Is that a handle allowing easy access inside the machine? Goddamn right it is! In there's where the beer goes!
Now that we're done with all the shouting, here's what the refrigerator (correct spelling--looked it up) is going to do:
1. House any prospective beers that need to be fermented at temperatures other than whatever the hell it is in the closet. That means you, lagers.
2. House any amount of beer (or food during holidays) that doesn't fit in our regular refrigerator.
3. House kegs once I begin kegging the beer. This will require installing taps on the door, and hopefully this will happen soon--donations to the cause are welcome (preferably in the form of traffic for this site--tell yo friends).
Important Note--This refrigerator came into my possession as a donation from my good friend Scooter, an aficionado of beers in his own right. He has agreed to accept compensation in the form of beer, which is worth its weight in gold--when it's good. His contribution is greatly appreciated, and he will certainly get what's coming to him (in a good way).
I got beer technology, bitches. Pow.
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Brewed Slowly: #4 American Cherry Wheat
I've been MIA for a while as far as posting new material goes, but I've got some beer to write about. This bitch don't write itself, yo.
About two weeks ago, I cooked up a batch of American Wheat, which was/is to become a Cherry Wheat beer--and hopefully not as overwhelmingly cherry as a certain cherry beer I've publicly berated. This beer has already been bottled and should be primed sufficiently about a week from now. If you want to find out what kinds of frog legs and tennis shoes I tossed in the pot, you know what to do.
The software:
6 lbs Northern Brewer Wheat liquid extract (65-35)
1 lb Weyermann Pale wheat grain
1 oz Cascade pellets
0.5 oz Williamette pellets
Wyeast 1010 American Wheat yeast
2 oz. cherry extract
(I've been cruising on autopilot with these last few beers, for better or worse, and basically follow the same steps while brewing. This'll read familiar if you've followed any of the last few entries.)
the beginnings of an american wheat
I steeped the pale wheat grain for 30 minutes at a temp. between 150 and 160 F. I started with only 1.5 gallons of water. After that half hour, I added another 1.5 gallons of water and brought it all to a boil. Then the extract and Cascade pellets went in. I let this boil for 90 minutes, which is longer than I usually boil, and to be honest, I don't remember why I let it go this long. There's certainly nothing wrong with cooking it the extra 30 minutes, but I don't remember having a reason for doing so.
After the wort boiled for 90 minutes, I took it off the heat and tossed in the 0.5 oz. of Williamette pellets and let the pot sit in an ice bath. (I still haven't gotten a wort chiller, but if anyone wants to donate one to the cause, it will be accepted.)
This beer was only the second one I got a Wyeast smack pack for (the first time I used a smack pack, I didn't actually pop the nutrient pack on the inside--nonetheless, the yeast worked), and I made damn sure to bust the nutrient pack this time. The yeast pack swelled, so I know I got it. I pitched the yeast when the wort had cooled to about 75 F.
fully proofed smack pack meeting wheat wort
When I bottled this beer I added a little less than half of a 4 oz. bottle of cherry extract.
The starting gravity was 1.050, and when I bottled the beer, it was 1.010. When it's ready to drink I'll update.
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Brewed Slowly: #3 Red Ale
On to the next beer.
Last Sunday, I brewed a Red Ale kit that was given to me as a Christmas present this year. I've put off posting about it most of this week. And for no good reason, really. But now I've found myself in front of the computer with my notes in hand, so here it is.
The software:
12 oz. specialty grains (I have no idea what grains were included--this kit is secretive)
7 lbs Briess golden light extract (liquid)
1 oz. Amarillo hops
amarillo hop pellets and my hand
1 oz. Ahtanum hops
Nottingham Dry yeast
I brewed this beer by myself, but I followed the same process as we always have. First, I brought 1.5 gallons of water up to 150 F. Then I steeped the mystery/specialty grains at (or around) 150 F for half an hour.
it doesn't look red, but it'll be red
After I took out the grains (they then went into the compost cause we're green), I brought the liquid up to a boil and added the 7 lbs of extract and the 1 oz. of Amarillo hops.
Then I waited, stirred, waited, stirred, waited, ad nauseam for an hour.
After it had boiled for an hour, I took it off the heat and added the 1 oz. of Ahtanum hops. Then I put the pot in my icebath of sorts. (Lately, my ice baths are me putting the pot of wort into a sink full of cold water and some ice packs. This is not the most efficient way to cool the wort, nor is it the way I'd recommend doing so. I have yet to get/make a wort chiller, so until I do, this is how my wort does its thing.) When the temp. reached about 115 F, I poured the cool wort into the fermentor and added enough water to top it off at 5 gallons (I also put at least a gallon of water in the freezer about an hour prior so that some of the water is really cold and will drop the wort temp. down to a nice 90-95 F).
This kit came with Danstar dry yeast, so all I had to do was rip that bad boy open and dump it in the fermentor. Also, I made sure that I aerated the wort by stirring it up while it cooled and making splashes when I poured it in the fermentor. Yeasts need O2 to live y'all.
The OG was 1.052 before fermentation.
--
Since I've waited so long to post this entry, I've actually already bottled the beer. Today I was busy with bottling this beer and cooking up the next batch of beer. Which you'll have to wait to find out about. Suspense--ooh.
red ale ready to get bottled
The final gravity was 1.014, so the final alcohol content came out to 3.99 ABV.
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Brewed Slowly Update: #2 Cherry Stout
The cherry stout that we made for the holidays has been ready to drink for some time now. It's been busy around here, and most of the beers have gone out as presents, but I'm finally making time to talk about it here.
Our cherry stout, also known as our Red-nose Stout, is pretty self explanatory. It's black as any stout, and it smells that way as well (like a stout, not black). You can smell the cherries somewhat, and you can taste them up front. Then you taste the stout. It's a pretty heavy beer. We added extra malt to hike up the alcohol content (which came out around 8% or so), and we primed it with dry malt extract. I wouldn't call Guinness a thick beer, although many people would, but this stout is thick. It has a strong, thick body and taste.
Even though I'm a documented non-fan of fruity beers, this beer I like. The cherry flavor takes a backseat to the strong stout taste, and that's good in my book.
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Brewed Slowly: #2 Cherry Stout
I'm not a fan of fruity beers (or negative construction introductions), but today Steve and I made a Cherry Stout. We have our reasons. It's a holiday beer of sorts. Steve brought some Sam Adams Cherry Wheat for the occasion.
(I got no pictures because our digital camera (my other camera's an old-school film kind) killed the batteries as soon as I turned it on to take some pictures of the process. Imagine pots and brown/black liquid. Smiling faces on two medium handsome men.)
This might be the darkest beer yet. Like dark as in black hole with chocolate milk froth as the event horizon dark. You can't even see this beer--it's that dark. Also, we listened to Maiden's The Number of the Beast record and a Replacements' B-side record while it was cooking (what's more atmospheric music for making beer than the Replacements and Maiden?). We'll say that helped. Here's how we did it:
The software:
0.5 lbs. dark crystal (grain)
0.5 lbs. roasted barley (grain)
0.5 lbs. black malt (grain)
3 lbs dry dark malt extract
6.3 lbs liquid dark extract
1 oz. Perle hop pellets
Safbrew S-33 dry yeast
We steeped the grains at about 150 F for half an hour. Then we took out the grains--toss 'em in the compost--and added the Perle hops, dry extract, and half of the liquid extract. Boiled it for an hour. Smelled good (seriously, if you haven't tried making your own beer yet, you should--in addition to all the other benefits, it'll make your house smell fucking good (and not like beer, surprisingly)). Flipped over the Maiden record. (Also, we watched some Sunny in Philadelphia on DVR. There's a lot of waiting in beer making.) Around 45 minutes into the boil, we added the other 3.15 lbs of liquid extract to the boil. Fifteen minutes later, we put the pot in an ice bath to cool it down--I've got to get some kind of wort chiller to shorten this process--, and when the temp. got down down to 80 F, I pitched the yeast. Simple, easy,--beer is made.
Our starting gravity is a tree-trunk sturdy 1.080. I'll let you guys know how the fermentation goes.
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Here Comes the Beer
I'm going to be shifting gears and focusing, almost exclusively, on homebrewing and beer. In an effort to more narrowly define my site and hopefully find a focused niche, I won't be posting about all of my interests anymore. Nobody's a pro at it all, except maybe Tom Waits, and I ain't Tom Waits.
I'm currently trying to find a new home (read: blog) for The Box of Vinyl Project (only one rejection so far) because I think the idea is too much fun, and hopefully, to you guys, interesting, to quit altogether. If you know of a blog that it might fit in well with, let me know. I'll definitely send them a proposal to pick it up. And I thought submitting to literary magazines was hard. Sheee-it.
So from now on, you can look to Typed Slowly for all of your fermentation-related interests and also to satisfy your time-killing urge at your terrible job (everybody's job sucks--yours is no different--unless you're Jim Koch) by reading about beer. Fun, fun, fun. Yes, yes, yes.
Having said that, I'll probably manage to sneak in a post about a book, record, show, film, internet video, or lawn-mowing experience every once in a while--while Kirby's not looking. Mum's the word.
On the sunny side, I'm starting another feature to fill the canyon-like void that will be left by The Box of Vinyl Project. We'll call it (adopt Don LaFontaine's voice (look him up)) Drinking It All. The title sounds a bit more Dionysian than it actually is. I'll be setting out on a mission to try every beer I can get my hands on. I realize I've set myself up for failure from the beginning (it's tragically flawed); I can't possibly drink every beer made. But I'm goddamn gonna try. It'll be fun. I'll drink beers you wouldn't consider smelling. I'll drink beers I wouldn't normally consider smelling. Emphasis on the drinking here, not the smelling. I'll take suggestions and I'll make suggestions. It'll be educational. Economical. Inspirational. Farcical. It'll be about beer.
It's fixing to all be about beer.
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Brewed Slowly: Homebrewing Basics
I was recently asked to write up a post that covers the basics of homebrewing, and I realized that I probably should have done so at the beginning of this blog's existence. In any case, I'm doing it now. If you're considering starting to brew your own beer, or if you're just interested in the process, hopefully this post will give you an idea of how it works and where you need to go to get started.
As I've told several friends when they ask me about homebrewing--it's too easy and too cheap not to do it.
The easiest way to start brewing your own beer is to get a starter homebrew kit. There are tons of websites that sell these kits (starting around $100), and if you have a local homebrew store, they should be available there as well. These kits vary in price and quality and in the amount of equipment you get. I got my kit at Homebrewers.com. This kit is a deal because it includes an all inclusive beer ingredient kit, which will typically cost anywhere from $20 to $50 (and all you have to do is follow directions and you've made your first beer). Since I've only made extract beers so far, I can only explain how it works making beer from extract. When I get to making beers using all-grain, I'll definitely do a description of it as well.
Making the beer is about as easy as following a recipe for chili. In the interest of brevity, I'll keep this description pretty general, otherwise this post will be longer than you want to read--assuming you are still reading now.
If you're still here, good deal.
Basically, a homebrewer will steep some specialty grains, which contribute several things to the beer (i.e. taste, head retention, color) around 150 Fahrenheit for 30 min to 1 hour in as much water as will safely fit into the pot, then add malt extract (liquid or dry), bittering hops, and boil for an hour. Most people add hops at various times during the boil to get different tastes/aromas. After the boil is done, the wort (what's in the pot) is cooled to a temperature safe to pitch the yeast at. Usually, I'll chill the pot in an ice bath and get the temp down to about 110 F, then top it off with enough cold water to make 5 gallons and it'll drop the temp, usually, to around 80 F or so. This lower temperature is necessary so that the yeast will proof, and not die, when added to the wort. After the yeast is added to the wort, the fermentor is lidded and the airlock is fitted into the lid.
Then it's time to wait. We all know what they say about the waiting.
After a few days, give or take, the fermentation will be complete (the airlock will stop bubbling). Then the fermented, but uncarbonated, beer is transferred to bottles or a keg system, where it can be carbonated in various ways, and aged anywhere from 2 weeks to several months or even years. I can't ever wait that long.
I know that was a pretty fast run-through on how to brew at home, but I think that makes the process somewhat clear or at least demystifies it a little. There are myriad other variables that can change the process, such as using grain instead of extract, dry-hopping, throwing in additives (honey, gypsum, salts), wort-chilling, or transferring to secondary fermentors, but we'll save them for another day.
There are enough books on homebrewing to fill a small library, and these books can be very helpful to not helpful at all. I highly recommend Charlie Papzian's The Joy of Hombrewing and Homebrewing for Dummies for beginning homebrewers. They both cover the basics and come with lots of good recipes for brewers of all levels.
I'll do some posts in the future where I tackle some of the separate steps involved in brewing, what their purposes are, and different ways to complete them.
Last, but absolutely not least, to really get the most out homebrewing beer, it is essential to have some beers on hand, preferably homemade, to ease through the process without worry. That and a good stereo system and music. Iron Maiden records work pretty well. As does anything by the Replacements or Paul Westerberg (for obvious reasons).
Now, go get your ass a homebrew kit and make some beer.
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Brewed Slowly Update: American IPA
big beers are better than regular beers (especially when they're homebrewed and bottled in tallboy RedStripes)
I know I've slacked a little on updating the progress of the first Brewed Slowly entry and how the beer has turned out. I started trying them about a week and a half ago to see how far the carbonation was coming. I know you're dying to know.
belated pic of the beer going into the secondary with 0.5 oz of Chinook hops
Well, now they're carbonated to my liking, a little softer than your Budweiser or High Life, but sharper than, say, a Guiness. I'll admit that I'm pretty pleased with the taste. This was the first beer I've dry-hopped, and the process really does make a difference. My wife says it reminds her of Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale, which I'd say is a good thing, although I think it tastes a little less citrusy than Sierra Nevada. While the alcohol and hop content isn't exactly comparable to this example, the beer reminds me a little of Dogfishhead's 90 minute IPA. (I don't think I am, but I may be projecting what I want it to taste like onto the beer itself. If you've tried the 90 min. IPA, you'll understand, I think. If you haven't tried this beer, holy shit, do. You can't get it in Mississippi (it comes in around 8-9% alcohol) but when you're next in a state with reasonable alcohol laws, pick up a four-pack.) The considerable hop taste is still balanced with the slightly sweet malt taste. Next time, I'm thinking of dry-hopping it again in the bottling bucket on its way to the bottles. We'll see. All in all, success--it's beer.
p.s. For those of you interested in beer and/or the process of making it, check out Starkville Homebrew, put together by another local fighter for the cause. If our fine state of Mississippi won't let us buy all the beers we should be able to, we'll just have to make it our own damn selves.
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On Stouts: Don’t Judge A Beer By Its Color
Today, the New York Times ran an article about Stouts (the beer) in which the author, Eric Asimov, and others tasted 19 different American stouts. Asimov (no relation to Isaac?) made a pretty good point, and one that is often overlooked or ignored, that stouts traditionally are low in alcohol, possibly even lower than the Buds, Coors, and Millers of the big breweries, and have a much more delicate flavor than the name implies and the color indicates.
You can check out the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/dining/reviews/28wine.html?_r=1&8dpc
This discussion of stouts makes me wonder, as I have before, why so many people tend to classify beers, and base their own preferences of beer, solely on color. While color sometimes provides an indication of what a given beer will taste and smell like, it's by no means fool-proof.
I've tried to think of an apt analogy for this phenomenon, but the best I've come up with is "Don't judge a book by its cover." The ugliness of a given John Grisham book's cover will not keep people from reading it en masse, just like the attractiveness of a new edition of David Foster Wallace's 1000+ page Infinite Jest will not likely be an impetus to read or not to read. End lit. references and book analogy. There are just too many things that go into making a beer that affect how it tastes to only consider what it looks like. Are people really so lazy that they make their drinking choices, important as they are, based on appearances? Don't they realize that they primarily taste the beer, not just observe it? Yes, goddamn people are lazy.
To be fair, I'm sure plenty of people actually do choose to drink a dark beer, such as a stout or porter, because of the color rather than the taste. But that doesn't really help me prove my point or strengthen my argument so I'll not discuss it. (This isn't a fucking comp 2 paper.)
I'll stop with the lecture/bitch session there. In any case, next time you ask what a certain beer is like, try not to ask if it's dark or light. Ask if it's particularly hoppy or not. If the answer you get doesn't mean anything to you, don't worry about it. Nod your head, pick it anyway (try something new, it's easy), and just be glad you're drinking a beer instead of doing something else less fun.
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Brewed Slowly: American IPA
Brewed Slowly will be a continuing feature/series here on Typed Slowly in which I'll document my experiences as a relatively new homebrewer figuring out what's good about beer and how to consistently make it (the beer).
cooperative brewing
So yesterday, my friend and brewing partner, Steve, and I made an American-style IPA (India Pale Ale). If you're not familiar with this type of beer, it's traditionally known for its higher alcohol content and high hop content. IPAs are one of my favorite types of beer because of the high hop content, which gives the beer its bitterness and flowery/citrus kind of smell.
The software:
7 lbs Extra Pale Malt Extract (Liquid)
1 lb 2 row Pale Malt Grain
0.5 lb Vienna Malt Grain
1.4 oz. Magnum hops (14.2 AA)
2 oz. Chinook hops (14 AA)
Wyeast 1272 American Ale II
We started by steeping the 2 row and Vienna grains at 150 Fahrenheit in 2.5 gallons of water for 45 minutes. It actually stayed closer to 168 because I'm not so good at keeping the electric stove at a consistent temp. Then we took out the grains, brought the temp. to boiling, and added the 7 lbs of extract and the 1.4 oz. of Magnum hops. This boiled for an hour, at which time we cut the heat, added 0.9 oz. of the Chinook hops and put the pot in a sink full of ice water to cool it down. After it cooled down to about 125 F, we poured it into the fermentor, straining out the second addtion of hops, and added enough water to bring it to 5 gallons. This second addtion of water brought the temp. down to about 80 F, which is still a little high to pitch the yeast at, but we went ahead and pitched the yeast anyway (mavericks, I know).
hops that did their thing
The starting gravity was 1.050, and as of this morning(10/3), fermetation hasn't started.
I'll be updating as the fermentation starts happening.
This morning 10/5, when I got up, the airlock was bubbling. The SG is 1.045. It's going a little slow because we haven't turned on the heat and the windows are open. The temp. on the fermentor is between 66 and 68 F.
Update: (10/7) SG: 1.040
(10/13) Transferred to secondary fermentor. Dry-hopped with about 0.5oz. Chinook hops. It's tasting pretty hoppy so far. SG: 1.012
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