Nov 14

Ruby Hooker Mead- Batch 38

Oooh, yeah!  Got my hands on 18 lbs of honey and 10lbs of raspberries.  What to do with them?  Why, make mead, of course!

Empty Honey Containers

Empty Honey Containers

The recipe is really simple.  Add honey to 1 gallon of water, boil for 15 minutes while skimming off the white proteins that float to the surface. After 15 minutes kill the heat, add the raspberries and let them steep for 20 minutes to pasteurize them.

Honey in the pot

Honey in the pot

Once pasteurized, add the whole lot to a large enough fermenter to handle 6 gallons with lots of empty space, or if you can’t do that then use two 5 gallon fermenters.

Canned raspberries

Canned raspberries

This morning I took the initial gravity and pitched the yeast.  After removing all raspberry floaties from my hydrometer reader, the initial gravity came out to 1.124.  This thing has the potential for up to 15% alcohol by volume.  I doubt it will get that high, but holey guacamole that is high!

In about two weeks I’ll rack it off to another fermenter, then after a month or two I’ll rack it off again and let it sit.

Next year, once this mead is done, I’m in for some good holiday libations!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=589

Nov 07

Rob’s Belgian Dubbel- Batch 37 bottled

Yesterday my boss Rob and I bottled up our 10 gallons of Belgian Dubbel.  Final gravity came out to 1.018.  Doing the math we have 1.086-1.018=.068 x 105= 7.14 x 1.25= 8.9% alcohol by volume.  8.9%!!!  That’s the highest alcohol by volume for any beer I’ve done, not counting my mead.

Tasting it I knew we had a winner.  It had a complex malt body with the roasted malts being predominant.  The hints of orange bitterness and the licorice came through as well.  Wonderfully complex, this one will be great once it matures.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=586

Oct 23

Brewing a Belgian Dubbel- Batch 37

So, my amazingly cool boss, Rob Morrison, wanted to brew a Belgian Dubbel.

Rob "The Stud" Morrison

Rob "The Stud" Morrison

No problem, I told him.  Grabbed my clone recipe book, we flipped through it, and we decided on doing the clone of Ommegang Abbey Ale.  Wanting to know what I’m brewing, I of course grabbed a bottle for Rob and I to share.

Ommegang Abbey Ale, our Belgian Dubbel

Ommegang Abbey Ale

We also decided to double the recipe, because 5 gallons between two guys just isn’t enough beer!

So, with double in mind, I went to Steinbarts and grabbed Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=562

Oct 13

Liberty Pale Ale bottled- Batch 36

Last night (10/13/2010) I finally got around to bottling my Liberty Pale ale.  I had run out of the regular sanitizer solution I use, so I resorted to a Papazian suggestion:  Using bleach and then rinsing with hot water.  Sampling the beer I was glad to not notice any bleach in it (thanks, Charlie!)  I did notice it wasn’t quite the same as my first batch.  I expected some differences, given I didn’t use the Munich malt, but it seemed…. different.  I will have to wait till it finishes bottle conditioning to really evaluate.

Final gravity came out to 1.012, giving an alcohol by volume of 5.25%.    Should be good still, despite the slight differences between the first batch and this one.

Next beer on the list:  A Belgian dubbel.  Stay tuned!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=560

Sep 26

Liberty Pale Ale redux- Batch 36

Friday afternoon I decided I was going to make some beer.  So, I grabbed the kids, threw them in the van and headed off to Steinbarts.  On the way, I began to ponder what beer I would make.  Hmmm….. I was tempted to redo my standard hefeweizen (i.e. my half-a-weizen), but I began to think about what I wanted to drink right there and then, and I decided I wanted a pale ale.  Now, my Liberty Pale ale was quite exceptional, but I didn’t have the recipe in front of me.  Aww, who cares, right?   This is beer, not rocket science.  So at the beer store I grabbed 7 lbs of light malt extract syrup and 1 lb of 20 lovibond crystal malt.  I also grabbed some Safale US-05, and a new beer magazine and a new spigot for my bottling bucket.  It seems my lazy man method of cleaning the spigot has resulted in a few funky batches.

Armed with my ingredients, only slightly different from my original Liberty recipe, I began my brewing on a beautiful Saturday morning (September 25th to be exact.)

Mashed the crystal malt for 45 minutes at 145 degrees, strained and sparged them using the lazy man’s method (particularly effective with small amounts of grain.)  I then added more water, brought it to a boil and added my malt extract.  Using my hops bag, I stuck with the original hop schedule as my original Liberty Pale Ale (.75 oz Centennials for 60 minutes, .5 oz Liberty for 15 minutes, .5 oz Liberty for 5 minutes.) I also used some Irish Moss to help settle anything out I don’t want in.

All went well for the boil.  I transferred the wort to my fermenter and topped it off to 5.5 gallons (I thought it was at 5 gallons, but I had the bucket at an angle.)  Aerated and pitched the yeast today, getting an initial gravity of 1.052.  Should be ready to bottle by Friday, so I’m hoping.  Talking to my boss about making a Belgian Dubbel next weekend.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=558

Jul 03

Mead Bottled- Batch 35

I brewed this batch of mead at the beginning of January, and on today July 3rd I finally bottled it.

Brett siphoning mead

Brett siphoning mead

The first thing I noticed was the aroma.  A definite strong alcohol smell with the wonderful esters of honey.  The yeast looked very strange at the bottom of the carboy, like some undersea silt with strange jellyfish floating around the yellow liquid.

Mead in the carboy

Mead in the carboy

Mead in the bucket

Mead in the bucket

Once transferred to the bottling bucket I took the final gravity, which came out to be 1.015.  Subtract that from my initial gravity of 1.106 gives us .091.  Multiply by 105 and then again by 1.25 gives an alcohol by volume of 11.94%.  Over 11%?!?!  Holy cow, this ain’t beer, it’s liquor!

Final Gravity of the Mead

Final Gravity of the Mead

After tasting a sample, my hunches were confirmed.  It had a light sweet honey type of start with a harsh hard alcohol burn for the finish.  This will definitely need to sit for another 6 months before enjoying.

What amazed me the most about it was the color.  It is an extremely light color and completely opaque.  It looks really pretty in my clear glass bottle.

Mead in a clear corona bottle

Mead in a clear bottle

Well, true believers, this batch will be ready to sample hopefully around Christmas.

On another note, I found a potential source of crud that may have gotten into my last few batches of beer.  Although I soak my bottling bucket in bleach water after every use, I have failed to take the spigot off and thoroughly clean it.  Tonight I finally did this.  Another lesson learned.  Always seem to be learning things the hard way.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=543

Feb 20

Lucky Stout Bottled- Batch 36

Finally got around to bottling my Beamish clone.  Bottling 10 gallons of beer is a task, let me tell you.  To make things more difficult, I thought my bottle filler was broke, as it wouldn’t stop pouring.  After a bit I got it working again, but it was still dripping slowly.  Will have to replace that bad boy.

Final count was 84 12oz bottles and 5 22oz bottles.

Final gravity was 1.010, giving a final alcohol by volume of 4.33%.  It came out much higher than my first time brewing this.  Very curious.  Possibly due to the long time fermenting?  Maybe.  3 weeks in a fermenter is more than sufficient for most beers.

This will be nice to have around to drink.  I so love this beer.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=533

Feb 03

A New Pot and A Batch of Stout- Batch 36

My wife got me the best birthday present ever.  She got me a 15 gallon brew pot.

Brett and the Brewpot

Brett and the Brewpot

This thing is so stinking big I can stick both my boys in it and have room for veggies!  (Note:  I am NOT endorsing cannibalism!  I’ll leave that to the British Navy. 😉  )

Boys and the Brewpot

Boys and the Brewpot

Boys in the Brewpot

Boys in the Brewpot

So, what do you need to do to when you have a new brewpot?  Make beer.  DUH!

Not knowing what to make and desiring a nice, Continue reading

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Jan 05

Mead – Batch 35

Viking Drinking Horn filled with Mead

Viking Drinking Horn filled with Mead

Ok, I’ve been negligent lately on my blog.  So much so that I can’t remember the exact day I brewed by first batch of mead.  I believe it was the 23rd of December, so I’ll go with that.

Deciding to brave this journey, I began with a very basic mead recipe.  15 pounds of honey, water, yeast nutrient and yeast.  Pretty basic.  I used clover honey, since that was available and didn’t cost me anything.  Water was free and the wine/champagne yeast was $2.50 or something like that (I forget right now what yeast I used).  Yeast nutrients were $3-$4.  So, my total in this batch is $5-6.  Oh, what I could have free honey the rest of my life!

The question of whether or not to boil came up, and I defaulted to Papazian’s advice:  Boil for 15 minutes and call it good.  This neutralizes a lot of the nasties that are normally in honey and preserves some of the floral quality (though not all).  So, I boiled 1.5 gallons of water, added the honey, stirred and waited 15 minutes, then put it in my carboy.

Talk about easy!

I still have the whole funnel issue with my carboy, so I used a measuring cup to slowly transfer the mead to the carboy.  Once most of it was out of the brew pot I lifted the pot to pour the remainder in.  All in all the safest way to do it.

Once the honey was cooled I rehydreated the yeast, took the initial gravity (1.106), and pitched the yeast.

As of today (January 5), it is still fermenting away.  February 3rd will be 6 weeks fermenting, so I’ll check it then to see where it’s at.  I am really looking forward to this.  This will be a new experience for me.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=502

Dec 17

Unspoken Passion and Holiday Cheer Bottled

Last Friday (12/11) I was finally able to get to bottling my two batches of beer, my Holiday Cheer and my Unspoken Passion Imperial Stout (batches 33 and 34).  I had originally planned on transferring the stout to a secondary to help it settle, but with my time limitations I just went straight to bottling.

Now, doing this all by myself took way too long.  I started getting things ready to bottle at 7:30pm and wasn’t finished until 12:00 am.

Holiday Cheer Beer Label

Holiday Cheer Beer Label

Bottling the Holiday Cheer, the final gravity came out to 1.016 for an alcohol content by volume of 5.775%. The flavor was oh so yummy, but the orange peel bitterness was more pronounced than last years batch. I am really hoping it tones down after some aging, as that was the one thing last year that I wanted mellowed as well. At least I know now how to better gauge the bottled orange peel spice.

Unspoken Passion Imperial Stout beer label

Unspoken Passion beer label

Now, the Unspoken Passion was more of a pain.  The one beer I’ve had the most trouble with.

I began transferring the beer into my bottling bucket, which is 6.5 gallons.  I topped the bucket off and had a bit of liquid left still.  I used 1 cup of corn sugar for bottle conditioning rather than 3/4 cup due to the volume.  Final gravity came out way too high, 1.030 for a final alcohol of 7.09%.  I expected this to be much higher.  I did lose a lot of malt extract with my boil over, though.  Also had I transferred it to a secondary and let it finish fermenting there it would have no doubt been lower.

The flavor on this was … wow!  Once it finishes bottle fermenting it’s going to be an awesome beer.  Now, if only Santa would bring me a bigger brew kettle, then I won’t have troubles with this beer in the future!

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