Missed one

Well, I missed a blog. Last week, I bottled the Innkeepers Beer. It tasted really good when I sampled it while filling the bottles.

Today, after we got home from the land, and stringing up the hops (they are growing so fast), I popped the top on one of the new beers. Lots of bubbles and a wonderful hop taste is developing. I'm thinking it is going to get hoppier as time goes one. It should be ready for working on the land next weekend to hand out to people.

Can't you smell that smell...

For a few days there, the Gruit was smelling a bit like a fart as it was fermenting along. However, over the course of the last couple days, it has developed a nice herby smell. I know that herby is not a word, but it isn't an earthy smell, and it isn't a bouquet either, so I settled on herby.

It still is fermenting and off-gassing rather well, which is surprising as it has already been longer than most of the beer I typically brew. So I am fascinated by this new process. Two more weeks and I will be transferring it to the secondary. Then two months and into the tertiary. Three stages, that's new as well.

Brew Day

Well, I was going to try to follow the recipe from gruitale.com as close as I could...but, as things go, I'm not going to.

Anyways, here is what I ended up doing.

6 lbs. Amber Malt Extract
3 lbs. Golden Malt Extract

1oz Yarrow and 1oz Mugwort at 60 minutes
1g Sweet Gale at 30 minutes
1oz Yarrow at 15 minutes
2oz Heather Tips at 15 minutes

Chill this down, add 25 crushed Juniper Berries (I'm not sure if I will like this part, but I'll go along with it), pitch Yeast (Nottingham) and let ferment for 4 to 6 weeks.

This is going to be the challenging part...the long wait. This is going to take about 8 months.

The smell was wonderful as all of this was brewing on the stove.

Hoo Haa

I just got the Yarrow and Burdock in from wild weeds (www.wildweeds.com). I'm excited about that. I'm going to do the brewing this Sunday.

This is the recipe that I will be using. Hope it turns out wonderful.


St. Emilian’s Day Gruit Ale
RECIPE DETAILS
By: Scott Carr & Joe Kaufmann
Final volume: 5 gallons / 19L
Original gravity: 1.090
Herbsused:Mugwort, Heather, Yarrow, Sweet gale and Juniper berries.

AUTHOR'S NOTES
This makes a very strong and heady brown ale, with an intense herbal character and a slightly spruce-like aroma. It really does need to age properly, and it comes into its own about eight months into the process.


INGREDIENTS
Grain bill
11 lbs / 5 Kg British pale ale malt
1 lb / 0.5 Kg crystal malt
1 lb / 0.5 Kg honey malt
Extra
¾ cups corn sugar for priming
1 tbs. irish moss
Herbs
2 oz / 50-60g of Mugwort
2 oz / 50-60g of Heather
2 oz / 50-60g of Yarrow
1 g of Sweet gale
75 cracked juniper berries (divided: 25 in primary, 50 in secondary)
Yeast
Wyeast Scotch Ale Yeast (1728) or similar
METHOD
1. Mash for one hour at 150 degrees, then sparge about three gallons at 180 degrees. Augment the wort with four lbs pale ale malt extract, ½ lb buckwheat honey, and ½ lb clover honey for a higher starting gravity.
2. Boil the wort 60 minutes, with herb additions as follows:
60 minutes: 2 oz. mugwort, 1 oz. yarrow
30 minutes: 1 gram sweet gale
15 minutes: 1 oz yarrow
5 minutes: 2 oz heather tips
3. Chill wort and strain into fermenter; add water as needed to make five gallons; pitch Wyeast Scotch Ale Yeast (1728) or similar; add 25 cracked juniper berries to fermenter. The OG should be about 1.090.
4. After 4-6 weeks, rack into secondary (discard juniper berries from primary). “Dry hop” with ½ tsp mugwort, ½ tsp yarrow, a small pinch of sweet gale, and 50 cracked juniper berries.
5. After 4-6 more weeks (when fermentation appears to be entirely complete), rack into tertiary and allow to age for at least six months, then prime and bottle.
6. Allow to sit in the bottle another 6-8 weeks, and then enjoy.


FIVE MONTHS TO WAIT FOR BEER!!

I'm going to have to do another batch of something else in the meantime.

Quandry

Well, I got all of the ingredients to start a Gruit except for Yarrow. That seems to be an important ingredient. So one more place to order from...wildweeds. So I think I will post pone the brewing date.

Here's to History

I've been doing a bit of research on beers of a time gone by. Many of you may already know this information.

It seems that hops were not always the choice bitter for beer. Yes, there was a time when hops were actually scorned as the additive which gave beer that bitter bite that we now all love.

The herbs Yarrow, Sweet Gale, and Marsh Rosemary were used in copious amounts prior to the use of hops. One, hops weren't always available, and two, the sinister three (Yarrow, Sweet Gale and Marsh Rosemary) have a MUCH more intoxicating effect. How much more intoxicating, we'll find out. I've ordered all of the necessary ingredients and I'm going to make a Gruit Ale. I have no idea what to expect.

Word has it, that it produces a sort of euphoric affect, along with a aphrodisiac-al effect for the imbiber. Just what we need at Wisteria, randy people all hopped up (pun intended) on alcohol fueled joy juice.

Be that as it may, I will be making 5 gallons of this as the next batch. However, it has a much longer brew time than I had originally intended. Some need to ferment for up to 8 months. I don't think I want to wait that long, so I'm brewing up something that will come of age in about 8 weeks.

The stout is in the bottle

Bottled 43 beers. How appropriate that that is all the glass that I had. 43 years old, 43 bottles of beer.

Anyways, here was the ingredient list for this new brew.

Breakfast Stout
1.5 lbs flaked oats
0.5 lbs Simpson's roasted barley
3.15 lbs dark mall syrup
1.0 lbs lactose
1 oz. Williamette hops
Nottingham Ale Yeast packet

I tasted the brew at this point, and it doesn't have much flavor at this point. I thought it would have much more...or something. I am hoping that it gets its flavor during these last two weeks of bottle priming.

Next up, more Farm Biere...and some Rye/Yarrow (or Mugwort) beer.

Getting ready for breakfast

I will be bottling up the Breakfast stout tomorrow afternoon. I got more bottles from the Winemaker's Shop here in Columbus.

While there, I asked the owner is she had ever made any beers with bitters that were other than hops. She suggested that I try some Yarrow. Being from the artemesia family, it should do well. Mugwort or Wormwood would also do the trick. I think I will try the Yarrow and Mugwort before I try the Wormwood, but that may be fun as well.

Anyways, the Breakfast Stout has been in the primary for 2 weeks. I will bottling them and they should be ready in about 2 weeks. Wow!! Beer in four weeks. Yay!!

More on the Beginner Beer Brewing

Some thoughts on this. I really enjoy brewing beer. The whole process, mixing, brewing, hopping, straining, listening to the fermentation, and certainly the drinking.

So, in the effort to pass along this joy that I have found, I would like to share with others what I have found.

The Beginner Beer Brewing will most likely fall sometime in August...near Lammas, maybe.

During the weekend, everyone would get to brew over an open fire. That is something that I need to practice as well, as I have never done that. There could be two levels; just being there to listen and watch. The second, to actually brew the beer.

I could put together a minimal set of equipment that people could purchase (at cost) that is needed to brew simple beer kits. Creating beer from the grains is a bit more difficult (and costly).

Let me know.

Last week and this...

Last week I put into the primary a breakfast stout. Oatmeal, roasted barley, dark malt, lactose (a non-fermentible sugar, who knew), and hops. It has been perking along for the last week just wonderfully.

Tonight, Sheila and I spent the evening with JR quaffing a six pack of the farm table beer... absolutely wonderful.

Beginner Brewing Event

I'm thinking about starting a very basic "first time brewer" event at Wisteria, either this year, or maybe next year. Include all the components for basic brewing in the cost of admission...perhaps use fresh picked hops...or not.

Forty Five

Forty five beers put up for the next two weeks. The beer out of the primary tasted very nice. Not real strong, but really tasty. Only have to wait for two weeks, how cool is that.

Need to order another round so I can keep beers rolling a bit more quickly this year.

So, within five minutes, I ordered some more beer from Northern Brewer.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/breakfast-stout-extract-kit-1.html

You win some, you lose some

Well, the hops from the hug didn't make a good beer. I don't believe it was the hops that made it bad, but just an aftertaste that developed during the fermentation.

Anyways, Northern Brewers was having a sale on some of their annual limited series farm beers, so I picked one up. Just an extract kit, but still proved to be both fun and encouraging (due to the last failure).

Sure enough, it is fermenting like a champ here in the basement. I'm listening to the tiny burps of the airlock as I type.

Should be ready in a month.

0.5 lbs Gambrinus Honey Malt
3.15 lbs Pilsen Malt Syrup
3.14 lbs Pilsen Malt Syrup
1 oz Tradition Hops