Brewing Activities - 12-2-2012

Today, I made the final kit that I ordered a couple of months ago.  It's called the Brickwarmer Holiday Red.  Reds are one of my favorites as far as boldness of taste and not as strong on the hop end of things.  This one had the malt added all at the beginning of the boil, while the other winter and seasonal ales had the malt added in different phases.  Also, this one had a spice pack of sweet orange peel that is in during the fermentation.  The aroma is excellent!  I think that has been my favorite part of making the winter and holiday ales is the fact that the aroma and spices are very pleasant to the smell.  More than likely, bottling will be the end of December, and then distribution in mid-January.

Here are the ingredients

.5 lb of English Dark Crystal
.25 lb Baird's Carastan
.25 lb Pale Chocolate

6 lbs NB Gold malt syrup
1 lb Wheat dry malt extract
1 lb Amber dry malt extract

1 oz Brewers Gold (60 minutes in boil)
1 oz Styrian Goldings (10 minutes in boil)
1 oz Sweet Orange Peel (add at the end of the boil)

Honey Amber - 11-25-2012

Today, we bottled the beer I'm probably most excited about.  I took an Amber recipe, and added oak chips that had been soaking in Wild Turkey Honey Bourbon for two months.  As I was bottling, I noticed a very slight "oaky bourbon" scent to it, which is exactly what I was shooting for as far as flavor goes.  I got 10 of the 22oz bottles and 28 of the 12 oz bottles.  It will be in the bottle in my garage for about another two weeks, and then it's time for a taste.

Over the weekend, my daughter and I opened up our Bery Blonde, which was a blonde recipe with strawberries and raspberries added to it.  My first taste of this was a couple of weeks ago, and it was OK.  However, it appears that as it ages in the bottle, the flavor gets better.  It still has the consistency of cider, but the flavor gets better with age.

Also, the feedback on the Novemberfest (actually Oktoberfest that didn't finish by the end of October) has been excellent.  It had a spice pack with some nutmeg, cinnamon, and orange peels in it.  It has a very bold and strong flavor, so you can't drink a lot of it.  However, it's very smooth.  I was pleased the way that the spices and the hops came together to form a good flavor.

Beer Stock as of 11-23-2012

I did a complete inventory of all of my beer stock this morning while getting it organized.  In the table below, you will see all of the different recipes we have made.  This does not include the Amber with Oak Chips soaked in Wild Turkey Honey Bourbon or the Seasonal Ale, which are currently fermenting (5 gallons each).

Right now, we have 2,104 ounces of beer in our available stock.  If you figure that we average 6 22 ounce bottles and 35 12 ounce bottles per batch, we have made 552 ounces of beer per batch.  At 15 batches (75 gallons before fermentation), we have made 8280 ounces of beer.  Given that I only have 2104 ounces of beer left, that means I've given (not sold) 6176 ounces of beer to family, friends, and co-workers.

Holiday Ale Bottling - 11/18/2012

Today, I bottled the Holiday Ale with a friend.  It has a combination of orange, cinnamon, and nutmeg flavors.  The smell was fantastic.  If the smell is any indicator, the taste of this batch of beer should be fantastic.

Brewing Activities on 10-28-2012

I'm late posting this entry that updates my brewing activities from last weekend.  I took an Amber Ale recipe, and then added oak chips that have been soaking in Wild Turkey Honey Bourbon for the last two months during the fermentation process.  The yeast has been very, very active the entire week, and I'm anxious to see the results of this effort.  The taste should be fantastic as I did not add any bourbon to it.  I just added the oak chips.  So the oak bourbon flavor should not be very overwhelming.

Here is the recipe.  I got the kit online from Northern Brewer.

Grains

.5 pounds of Victory Malt
.5 pounds of Briess Caramel 60

Malt

1 pound Pilsen dry malt extract
6 pounds Munich malt syrup - added at the last 15 minutes of the boil

Hops

1 oz German Perle
1 oz Hersbrucker - added at the last 15 minutes of the boil.

Yeast - Safale US-05 Ale Yeast

Rather than just add the dry yeast to the wort, I decided to start it with a cup of warm water and some honey (since I was using Honey Bourbon).  I feel this gave the yeast a huge kickstart to the fermentation process, and should enhance the flavor.

Brewing Activities - 10/21/2012

Yesterday, I went to Pint Defiance in Tacoma, and got a mini growler of Deschutes Chasin' Freshies Fesh Hop IPA.  It was very tasty, but also very, very hoppy.  In my opinion, almost too much hop flavor.  It was a different taste, which was interesting.  I would hope a deeper malty flavor with as much hop flavor as is in this beer.

Today, we bottled the Oktoberfest ale, which we are calling a Novemberfest because it won't be ready until November.  There was a significant boil off for this batch, so I only got 5 of the 22 ounce bottles and 31 of the 12 ounce bottles out of this batch.  The smell was really good, and the hop aroma was light.  The flavor should be strong, but less hoppy than some of the other beers I've brewed.

Also, I made a recipe I got online called Saison De Noel.  It is based on dark grains (Belgian Aromatic, Weyermann Carafa, Weyermann CaraAroma).  It's also loaded with a variety of malts (Candi Syrup - first time to use for me, Pilsner Malt syrup, Pilsen dry malt, and corn sugar.  What is interesting is that there is one round of US Magnum hops at the beginning of the 60 minute boil.  The dry malt is added 45 minutes into the boil, and then the corn sugar is added after the boil is done.  I'm anxious to see how this one turned out.  A bit different than anything else I've made.

Lastly, I took the grains and am making bread out of them.  It will be a darker bread, but the smell is quite good.  I'm anxious to see what it tastes like.  We use the same bread recipe because it's mostly grains, and the bread that comes out is always good in flavor.  The bread isn't necessarily good for sandwiches because it's very crumbly.  However, it's very good warm with either butter or garlic and olive oil as topping.

Activities on 10/14/2012

We brewed a Holiday Ale, which had a combination of wheat, rye, and chocolate grains.  Then, it also had a spice pack with orange, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  A bit light on the hops, but the smell is fantastic.  Started the fermentation last night, and it is happily bubbling away.  Really looking forward to how this one tastes!

Coming up

Bottling my Oktoberfest beer next weekend
Making an Amber with oak chips soaked in Bourbon for the last two months
Two different seasonal winter ales.