Continue reading]]> Saturday (May 21st), I decided to do two things at once: Brew a 10 gallon batch of beer and bottle my wife’s Framboise.  Well, they don’t call be crazy for nothing.

I decided to redo my Liberty Pale Ale, since the first time I did it it was so stinking good.  Alas, I didn’t have any Centennials for bittering hops, so instead of .75oz of Centennials I did 1oz of Cascades.  I like Cascade hops anyways.

Liberty Pale Ale Ingredients

I doubled my original recipe, and being lazy rather than doing the whole thing in my great big new pot I just did two separate batches in two separate pots, with the exception of the mashing, which I did in one pot.

Josiah, My Little Helper

Grains Mashing

If you want my original recipe, go here.  I did the standard 45 minute single temp mash, sparged my grains the lazy man’s method, since I didn’t have enough grains to justify using my lauder tun.  Then I divided the wort between my two pots, added water, and brought to a boil.

Two pots of wort

While things were waiting, I got ready to bottle.  I sanitized my bottling bucket and bottling equipment and my beer bottles.  Then I pulled the Framboise out.

Framboise in the fermenter

I transferred it into my bottling bucket, and it was a magnificent color.  I would call it a rose color.

The color of Framboise

Now, here was the interesting part.  I was given some advice from the helpful people at Steinbarts.  They suggested using some Torrani syrup at bottling time.  I bought an entire bottle of raspberry torrani syrup, and not knowing how much to add, I added the entire bottle to my 5 gallons.  Then, in a moment of insanity, I added 1/2 cup of corn sugar as well.

Now, some of you may know that the #1 ingredient in Torrani syrup is cane sugar, but I was in such a rush that I didn’t read this until after the fact.  I figured it had some sugar, but not that much!  I’m pretty nervous now about how carbonated my bottles will be, and whether any of them will burst.  Plus, all that sugar made it taste way too sweet.  I really hope it mellows out over time.

Framboise in the bottle

Final gravity turned out to be 1.012.  Original was 1.068, leaving me with an alcohol percentage of 7.35%.

Now, after rushing ahead (bottling was the last thing I finished), let’s get back to the brewing.

I added my 7lbs of light malt extract to my pots and 1oz of Cascade hops to each.  After 45 minutes I added .75oz of Liberty hops to each along with the last of the Irish Moss I have.  Then with 5 minutes remaining I added another .75oz of Liberty hops.

I transferred both to fermenters, topped them off to 5 gallons, and waited till Sunday to pitch the yeast.  Initial gravity was slightly different between both (1.056 and 1.060), so I’m going to average it out to 1.058.  Obviously there’s a lack of consistency here between the two.  Guess I should have taken the time and used my big pot.

Along with the yeast I pitched my Clarity Ferm, which will give it a nice clear look and lower the gluten levels in my beer.  This will be one I can share with my gluten free friends.

Continue reading]]> So, in what seemed like an eternity, I finally got around to transferring my lovely wife’s Framboise to a secondary fermenter this last Saturday.  Didn’t take the gravity, which I originally planned on doing, but added the Belgian yeast to it- some good old Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Strain.

I’ll plan on letting it sit in the secondary for a few months while the Belgian yeasts do their thing, and will hopefully have some Torrani’s syrup by bottling time.

My first gluten-reduced beer.  For my wifey!

Continue reading]]> I’ve been wanting to revisit my last Framboise attempt for some time, and with our kitchen being clean I decided now is the time.  So, after some research and some thinking, here’s the recipe I’ve come up with:

7lbs liquid wheat malt extract (I believe Steinbart’s uses a 60/40 barley/wheat ratio)
1lb dry malt extract
1lb 20L crystal malt
1.5lbs white wheat malt
1lb honey (holly/berry honey)
2oz Saaz hops
Safale SA-05 yeast
Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Strain
96oz Canned Raspberries (for wine making, but it was all Steinbarts had!)

Framboise Ingredients

Now, here is my plan:  mash the grains for 45 minutes at 145-150 degrees, sparge, add malts and honey, add Saaz, boil.  After boil remove from heat, add raspberries and pasteurize for 30 minutes.  Since most of the raspberries in the can were liquified, I could easily strain before adding to the primary.  Cool, aerate, take gravity, add yeast and Clarity Ferm (to make more clear and remove glutens.)*  After a week transfer to a secondary, pitch the Lambic yeast, and wait a few months.  At bottling time I plan on either using sugar water or some Raspberry Torrani syrup to give some sweetness to the beer.  As I get closer to bottling I’ll make that decision, but I’m leaning towards the Torrani syrup idea.

My Brewing Assistants

So, I started with mashing the grains.  The crystal and white wheat malts should add some sweetness to the final body of the beer.  And I always have extra little hands around to help.

Josiah helping to stir

Grains Mashing

With the mash done, I did a lazy man’s sparge (i.e. used a strainer and some 170 degree water), and added a bit more water and brought it up to a boil.  Once boiling I added the wheat malt, the dry malt extract and the honey.  Of course, Josiah decided to touch the burner during this time and burned his finger.  I was able to quickly rescue him with a rapid administration of ice and ibuprofin, and fortunately no blisters emerged.

After adding the Saaz, I boiled the wort for an hour.  Then, I removed the pot from the heat and added the raspberries.  I waited 1/2 an hour, then strained the mash and added it to my fermenting bucket.

Early this morning I aerated the wort, took the gravity, and pitched the yeast.  Initial gravity turned out to be 1.068.   Should turn out somewhere around the 7% alcohol range when done.

Of course, the clarity ferm was supposed to be added at this time, but I forgot.  Fortunately, I texted my wonderful wife and she added it to the beer.

Now, to wait a week to transfer the beer to the secondary!

* Having friends with gluten issue, I can’t share my beer with them.  Clarity Ferm by White Labs, which is made with Brewers Clarex, is a clarifying agent that removes excess proteins from the beer to make it clearer.  Removing proteins also means removing glutens.  Thus, a simple solution to make gluten reduced beer without too much extra effort.  😉

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Tracy's Framboise

Tonight we bottled Tracy’s Framboise that’s been sitting in the fermenter since March 1st.  All that time sitting there had me extremely curious as to how it would turn out, especially since the trub in the fermenter looked nasty.

Brett siphoning beer

Siphoned the beer into my bottling bucket, then took the final gravity, which came to 1.004.  Wow, talk about a lot of fermentation.  Almost all of the original 1.044 has been eaten up by those Belgium yeasts.  Alcohol came to 5.25% given that final gravity.

Nasty Looking Beer Trub

Brett prepping to take final gravity

The Hydrometer Reading

Once the final gravity was done I added the raspberry flavoring to the batch.

Adding raspberry extract to beer

Now, this presented a problem, not in terms of how much to add, but in terms of how much fermentable sugars are there.  If the syrup has some or a lot, then the beer can over ferment in the bottle.  If not any and I short the amount of bottling sugar, I won’t have well carbonated beer.  Doing what any trained scientist would do, I guessed.  Added all the extract, then used 1/3 cup corn sugar for bottling sugar.   A bit nervous, but hopefully all goes well.  I’ll keep checking on the bottles through the next few weeks.

Beer Yeast being pitched

Next, I pitched the yeast.  I added corn sugar to a tad bit of water, heated it up to dissolve, then added the yeast once the water got back down to reasonable temperatures.  The reason I’m pitching new yeast was that I’m pretty sure after all this time the old yeast is mostly gone from the beer, thus will need some fresh yeast for bottle conditioning.  I used Safale 33, a Belgian strain.  Thought I had a generic ale yeast instead, but this is what I had.

Bottling Tracy's Framboise

Now, it’s time to bottle.  Started bottling, using some nice, pretty red bottle caps I picked up.  The beer has a wonderful color to it, and the flavor at this point is very dry (given the amount of fermentation), and tart.  Not a lot of sweetness, which would be hard to do given my current setup, but good.  Can’t wait to see what it’s like in 2 weeks.

Framboise in clear bottle

Got quite a few bottles from this batch.  I hope Tracy loves this and treasures it!  It’s all for her!

Continue reading]]> Tuesday night I bottled up my oatmeal stout I made.  Let’s just say it starts like a Guiness and finishes with a smoky bitter taste.  I won’t blame anyone if they don’t enjoy it.  I think it will be an OK drink, but not what I was hoping for (my next one will be brewed with a grain bag).

Last night I brewed some Framboos (the name on the extract label), or Framboise as my family calls it.  It is a rasberry Belgian ale.  Very sweet and fruity, and my wife loves it.   So, I had two malt extract kits of the stuff ($9.95 each at the beer store, since they were technically expired.)  Made some Belgian candy sugar, boiled the malt, added the candy sugar, and away we went.  I took a sample of it and let my wife and daughter have a sample as well.  It was very good, it did have some of that fruity bitterness to it that real fruit has, but it was still yummy!  Pitched the yeast this morning, and away we went.

Now, all this brewing, and you think I’d have tons of beer to drink.  Well, not yet.  It takes time to ferment and bottle ferment.  But I did crack open a bottle of my first batch last night, the Old Flemmish Brown, and DANG!  It was good!  I can tell it will be much smoother after it ages a bit, but it was still yummy, and very strong!

My next beer after the Framboise will be a hefeweisen, and then I’ll probably do an IPA.  I absolutely love IPA’s!

There is still time to vote on your favorite brand name for my beer!  So, click the link and give me your opinion!