Archive for category Hobbies
Hiking – Old Goat Glacier
Posted by bradinator in Hiking, Hobbies, Photography on July 25, 2010
I cannot think of a better way to spend a beautiful summer day than on a mountain. I highly recommend Where the Locals Hike in the Canadian Rockies if you are looking for both rewarding and challenging trials. It should be noted that the couple that wrote this book are avid hikers and when they say “moderate to challenging difficulty” be prepared for a physically demanding hike.
Yesterday we located Old Goat Glacier trial with the help of that book.
The rest of the pictures can be seen in the gallery.
Bottling Day – Molasses Porter and English Mild
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Experiments, Hobbies, Home Brewing on May 29, 2010
Just a quick update on my last two home brews. I racked both of them today which required me to use every single bottle I own. I could not begin to tell you how many bottles I got, but its probably around 70 pints between the both of them.
Too be honest I kind of rush both of them and did not take an accurate measurement for the priming sugar. It should have worked out to about 1/2 cup of dextrose each, but I kind of eye-balled it.
Molasses Porter –
- Born May 2, Secondary May 16th, Bottled May 29
- Original Gravity: 1.056
- Final Gravity: 1.020 (S-33 SafAle yeast sucks)
- ABV: 4.7%, Calories/Pint: 250kcal
- Cost per pint: ~$1.00-$1.25
English Mild –
- Born May 8, Secondary May 16th, Bottled May 29
- Original Gravity: 1.034
- Final Gravity: 1.009 (S-04 SafAle yeast rocks)
- ABV: 3.2%, Calories/Pint: 150kcal
- Cost per pint: ~$0.70-$0.80
Finally I will give both 7-14 days to bottle condition. I have so much beer downstairs right now I do not even know what to do with it.
And here is the real crazy thing… I created an experimental cider today too. I used 2 gallons of cranberry cocktail, 1 can of frozen pineapple juice concentrate and topped it with water. Worst of all I just pitched this on top of the yeast cake from my molasses porter! What was I thinking!? Original gravity is 1.038 and god have mercy on my soul for this monstrosity I am creating.
Brew Updates – Dark Tower Graff Bottled and Molasses Porter moved
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Hobbies, Home Brewing on May 16, 2010
Today I spent the last two hours cleaning, bottling, cleaning, racking, cleaning and finally more cleaning. All for the sake of beer.
I decided to rack the Dark Tower Graff to bottles early for two reasons. First was that I want to have them ready for drinking before the long weekend, which happens to be the next weekend. Secondly I wanted my other glass carboy freed up so I could move the stagnant Molasses Porter into it.
The Dark Tower Graff read a final gravity of 1.010 which is no change from when I moved it to its secondary one week ago. The ABV is 5.5% and its 230k/cal a pint. I managed to get 37 and a half pints of graff from this batch which works out to about $1.10 a bottle. That is a guesstimate at best as I did not track how much the ingredients actually cost me for this batch. That 1/2 pint will most likely be ‘tested’ tonight as there is no point in carbonating a half-bottle as there is too much air space, which will leave it flat anyway.
I still have high hopes for the Molasses Porter. I am hoping that racking it to the secondary will awaken the yeast and get me at least a few more points of gravity. I want to see it hit a final gravity of 1.010 to 1.014, but that is a long way off in the world of home brewing. This will be getting at least two weeks in its new home as I will not be racking anything next weekend, rather I will be busy drinking my work.
Graff homebrew update
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Hobbies, Home Brewing on April 25, 2010
This is what a work of art in progress looks like.
The Dark Tower Graff fermentation is taking off
Ugly isn’t it?
Homebrew – Dark Tower Graff
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Experiments, Hobbies, Home Brewing on April 25, 2010
This is a hybrid of a cider and a stout. I was thinking of making both separately but stumbled onto this recipe on another forum and decided to give it a whirl.
Dark Tower Graff -
Ingredients -
- 3.75lbs of Pilsner LME
- 1lbs 120L Crystal Malt
- 0.25lbs Roasted Barely
- 0.25lbs Chocolate Malt
- 1 0z Target @ 45 minutes
- 1/2 oz Irish Moss @ 10 minutes
- 2 Gallons SunRype Pure Apple Juice
- 1 Package SafeAle US-05 (Rehydrated, pitched at 26c)
I steeped the grains for 20 minutes at around 70c. Following that I brought the grain tea to boil and added the LME and hops which were boiled for 45 minutes. When that was done it was moved to the fermenter where the cooled apple juice plus an additional 2.5 gallons of cooled water was added (bringing the temperature down rapidly). Finally I took the OG and pitched the yeast.
The Original Gravity was 1.052 which is exactly what I was aiming for. I am a little concerned about the yeast I pitched as it clumped together when I added it. I shouldn’t matter too much but I am going to keep an eye on it. The plan is 3 weeks in the primary, followed by a 7-14 days in the secondary to clean it up.
If all goes well I should have a tasty malted dark cider to enjoy by the end of May.
Oh and on a side note I finally got around to bottle my Apfelwien which finished at 0.996. I took a small sample taste and found it very tart and sharp which may require an extended bottle conditioning to mellow out.
Home
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Beer Tasting, Hobbies, Travel on April 24, 2010
After being forced to take an extended holiday in Europe, I finally find myself back home. Yes I was one of the many thousands of travelers stranded in a foreign country due to the Icelandic volcano. Thankfully we met up with a really great group of people that offered us accommodations until European Airspace opened again.
The extended week gave me an opportunity to sample multiple new beers in both Ireland and the UK, bring my total beers up to 489. If I did my math right that would mean I tried 50 new beers during this trip… Scary stuff. And now that 500 mark is not so far away anymore.
In some ways I need to thank the volcano for stranding me. I would have never had the chance to visit London and where I found several amazing ales to try, including a 5 star heavily hopped bitter which blew my mind. In other ways I need to curse it for the irreparable damage I caused to my liver during this nearly month long journey.Though I did not review all the beers I tried, I did a take tasting notes whenever I had my notepad available.
I will start posting the reviews shortly, along with photos of Ireland and London. Keep an eye out for them over the coming days.
Guinness really is better in Ireland
Brew Updates – Bradinator’s Mistake and The Great Yeast Experiment bottled, plus some tasting notes
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Beer Tasting, Hobbies, Home Brewing on March 8, 2010
So I spent the better part of my day yesterday cleaning, bottling and cleaning all over again. The entire process, not including my breaks took nearly 4 hours to finish but hopefully it will be worth it.
Bottling the Mistake Ale required the use of cheese cloth to catch some undissolved clumps of DME. This worked well and the final product is already showing incredible clarity. The final gravity reading was 1.011 which is higher then the last time I took a reading. This leads me to believe I didn’t take it correctly. The ABV is around 3.5% and each pint is only 150 calories! That is as much as a can of beer would normally have. The sample taste left a lot of be desired; I know I was trying to get a light beer, but I found it somewhat watery and bland. Hopefully next week when I sample a cold one the final product will be better.
The Yeast Experiment was a pain to bottle. To try to keep the results as consistent as possible I moved each gallon fermentor, one at a time into the bottling bucket and then into bottles. After finishing each bottling session I would clean everything with hot water and start the entire process over again.
The final gravities are as follows for each yeast.
S-04 – 1.016 (ABV 3.2%)
S-05 – 1.014 (ABV 3.5%)
S-23 – 1.020 (ABV 2.7%)
S-33 – 1.020 (ABV 2.7%)
To be honest I am not impressed with any of their fermentation’s. I was expect these “premium” yeasts to reach at least 1.010 (around 4% ABV) at a minimum, especially considering that I used 11.5g vs. the 5g I normally do. I was very disappointed in the results of the S-33 “Robust” ale yeast. High attenuation my ass! It fermented out at the same final gravity as the lager yeast, which probably struggled due to the warm fermenting conditions (lager yeasts prefer colder environments for better fermentation). That aside the sample tastes I took from the beers were not as disappointing; For a flat, warm beer they all tasted quite good. I cannot wait until I can try one!