Mar 01

The Experiment- Framboise – Batch 24

I’ve been pondering for some time how to do a framboise of the style that Lindeman’s does.  My wife loves that stuff!  Unfortunately, all the recipies I’ve seen don’t really mention how close they get.  I have an authentic lambic recipe for Framboise, but I know my wife won’t like it, and the brettanomyces yeasts are too darn expensive.

So, I was going to do a Brewferm kit and spice it up with a little raspberry extract at bottling, but Steinbarts was out of the Brewferm kits.  So, I came up with my own recipe, with a little help from the folks at Steinbarts.  An experiment, if you will.  Here’s the recipe:

3lbs light malt extract
1lb wheat malt extract
1lb 40L crystal malt
1/2lb white wheat malt
Wyeast 3278 Lambic blend
raspberry extract

I mashed the crystal malt and the wheat malt, sparged the grains, then brought the wort to a boil and added the malt extracts.  For hops, I used 1oz of Hallertauers for bittering hops, and 1oz of Tettnangers for aroma.  Once done I filtered the hops out, poured it into my fermenter (a brand new carboy), waited till it cooled, and pitched the yeast.  The initial gravity came out to 1.044.   I sampled it before I pitched the yeast, and it should be good, though I’m not 100% sure what the yeasts will do to it.  It will be nice to see.

I also bottled up the cherries in the snow.  Final gravity was 1.014, which gives a 6.825% alcohol by volume.  Wowza!  A nice strong, fruity drink.  Can’t wait for this one to be drinkable!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=365

Feb 20

Cherries in the Snow- Batch 23

Cherries In The Snow

Cherries In The Snow

Thursday I brewed a batch of beer from the Papazian recipe “Cherries in the Snow.”  Having 10lbs of cherries laying around sure pays off!

The recipe called for 8.5lbs of light liquid malt extract, but instead of buying extra malt extract that I may not use I purchased a bulk 7lb liquid malt extract and 1lb of dry light malt extract.    I also purchased some hops to use with it, as I wanted the Tettnanger hops that it called for.

Cherries and Hops

Cherries and Hops

Most of the process I spent crushing the cherries by hand, as they resisted my efforts to crush them with my potato masher.  So, with the assistance of my lovely wife, we crushed all the cherries.  I got the water boiling, added the extract and the bittering hops, and went back to crushing cherries.

Beer Wort Boiling

Beer Wort Boiling

Once the boil was done I turned off the heat, added the cherries to the wort and the boiling hops and let it sit for 15 minutes to pasteurize the cherries.

Cherries and Hops in the wort

Cherries and Hops in the wort

Once done, I dumped the whole lot into my fermentation bucket.  This morning, I aerated the wort and pitched the yeast.  Initial gravity turned out to be 1.066, which gives plenty of potential for a good alcohol content.   In 5 days I’ll transfer this to a secondary fermenter and let it finish.  A small sample taste assured me this will be a beer I’ll want to keep in stock.  Hoping my wife likes it, too!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=357

Feb 19

Cherry Stout Bottled- Batch 22

On the 15th I bottled up my cherry stout.  Before bottling, I had to use a strainer to remove floating cherry remains.  After transferring it to my bottling bucket, I had close to a gallon of sediment left in my bottling bucket.  Even had some cherry gunk stuck in my auto siphon.

Final gravity turned out to be 1.022, giving an alcohol by volume of 6.825%.  I personally thought it would be higher, and it might actually be higher.  There is sure to be a lot of sediment still left in the bottles that will settle out.

A sample taste had a lot of tartness from the cherries mixed with the bitter from the hops.  The body was nice.  Once it carbonates and I get a few chilled it should be a really nice beer.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=355

Feb 07

Cherry Stout Brewed- Batch 22

Cherry Stout

Cherry Stout

Thursday I brewed another Papazian recipe for Cherry Stout.  I was given 3 gallons of cherries by my sister in law (thanks, Karyn!), but, for some reason, felt the need to pick up a few more.  So, after the stout I will be brewing another Papazian recipe, Cherries in the Snow.

Started out with the mash, some roasted barley, black patent, and crystal malt.  Sparged the grains and proceeded to add the malt extract.  Now, I had measured out all the cherries by weight, and figured I had enough to increase the batch size to 6 gallons.  A little math, and I figured out how to increase my malt extracts while keeping it the most economical.  The most economical called for 7lbs of dark malt extract syrup and 3lbs of dark malt extract powder (my original math had the dry malt extract at 2.3lbs, but why let .7lbs of malt extract just sit around?)

The wort was to the top of my brewpot after the malt addition, so I had to boil it down for about 2 hours before adding my boiling hops.  After the hour long boil I removed the pot from the stove and added the crushed cherries.  Crushing the cherries proved to be a chore, as the cherries my sister in law gave me were frozen and resistant to crushing, so I had to do each cherry by hand.  I added these to the brewpot and some additional water to cool it off to around 165 degrees and left them there for 15 minutes to pasteurize the cherries.  I then proceeded to pour the whole lot into my fermentation vessel to cool off.  Shortly after doing this, however, I realized I had forgot to throw in the aroma hops.  Oops!  I added them at this point, knowing that none of this brew is getting filtered anytime soon.

Friday morning I aerated the beer, took the initial gravity, and pitched the yeast.  Initial gravity was 1.074.  Highest initial gravity I’ve ever brewed.  The hop pellets and the cherry chunks no doubt added to the high initial gravity.

Today I sit back and am listening contently to the most aggressive fermentation of any batch of beer I have ever brewed.  This one will knock your socks off when I’m done with it.  Wednesday I plan on using my strainer to skim as much stuff out of the beer as possible, then syphon and rack it into another fermenter, leaving behind the cherries.  Once fermentation is done, I bottle it.  Should be a nice, hearty, strong and sweet beer.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=350

Jan 26

The Health Benefits of Alcohol

Just ran across some articles discussing the health benefits related to moderate alcohol consumption.  So, without further ado, here are the links.

Beer Examiner Article Part 1

Beer Examiner Article Part 2

Beer Examiner Article Part 3

Beer Examiner Article Part 4

Cheers!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=348

Jan 23

Righteous American Bottled – Batch 21

On Monday the 19th  I bottled the Righteous American.  The final gravity turned out to be 1.010.  Initial gravity was 1.048, which gives an alcohol by volume of 4.99%.  With all the hops in this sucker, I’m waiting a good 2 weeks before cracking one open.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=345

Jan 12

Bombay IPA Bottled, Batch 21 Brewed

Saturday I brewed a remake of the Righteous American, which would be my 21st batch of beer I’ve made.  We wanted to give it some extra kick without spending any additional money, so I added more hops.  Instead of the 1-1/2 oz of Cascades, I used 1oz Cascades and 1/2 oz of Chinook.  30 minutes into the boil I added 1/2 oz of both Cascade and Wilamette hops.  Then the 1/2 oz of Wilamette for the aroma.  Initial gravity was 1.048, so it should turn out nice as far as alcohol content.

Sunday I bottled batch 20, our Bombay IPA.  The final gravity came out to 1.012, giving us an alcohol content of  5.51% by volume.  Turned out higher than the previous brew of this beer.

Next month I’m hoping to have enough extra money to brew a Cherry stout.  We will see….

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=337

Jan 09

Batch 20- Bombay IPA

Saturday I brewed my 20th batch of beer, a remake of the Bombay IPA.  This also marks my first year of doing homebrewing (ok, a year and 3 days- sheesh!)

Home Brewer's Bible

Home Brewer's Bible

Our recipe is modified from Papazian’s “Laughing Heart IPA.”

Beer Making Supplies

Beer Making Supplies

A quick check of my supplies… Book, scale, hose, thermometer, irish moss, gypsum.  Yep!

Bombay IPA Beer Recipe

Bombay IPA Beer Recipe

And, the recipe we based our IPA off of, along with our notes for prices at Steinbarts.

IPA Ingredients

IPA Ingredients

The ingredients.  4lbs of 6 row, aromatic malt (actually, Vienna malt, as Steinbarts was out of aromatic), and crystal malt, along with 4lbs of light dry malt extract. Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=315

Dec 23

Batch 19 Bottled- Lucky Stout

Last Thursday the 18th I bottled the Beamish Stout clone I made.  So, since some of you have never bottled your own beer, let me walk you through the experience.

To bottle properly, you need to:

1) Sanitize all your bottles and your bottling bucket.  I like to get my bucket full of sanitizing solution, then dip the bottles in the bucket until all surfaces have been sanitized, then dry the bottles.  Some folks have invested in a bottle drying stand.  Well, I have a perfect bottle dryer that came with our apartment:

My Bottle Drying Rack

My Bottle Drying Rack

First, I sanitize the dishwasher with my sanitizing solution (with a spray bottle), then I dry the bottles in the dishwasher.

Bottles Drying

Bottles Drying

2) Sanitize every piece of equipment that will touch the beer.  This means your auto syphon, plastic hose, the bottling wand, the bottle caps, and your stirring spoon and measuring cup.  Measuring cup?  Yep.  Trust me.

Bottle Caps After Sanitized

Bottle Caps After Sanitized

3) Syphon your beer out of the fermentation vessel into your bottling bucket (after emptying it of sanizer).  Now this part was weird at first, Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=272

Dec 13

Holiday Cheer! Batch 18 Bottled

Holiday Cheer Beer Label

Holiday Cheer Beer Label

Today I bottled my 18th batch of beer, the Holiday Cheer!  Final gravity came out to be 1.012, initial was 1.052, difference of .040.  So, alcohol by volume should be around 5.25%, same as the IPA I brewed.
Can’t wait till this matures in the bottle.  Going to be a good one!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=266