Archive for category Hobbies

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 8th, 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!

http://www.bradinator.com/an-experiment-in-brewology-beer-yeast/

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Snowshoeing is fun

Posted by bradinator in Hiking, Hobbies on February 16th, 2010

I am glad I got outside this weekend, even if it was only for a few hours. Snowshoeing is a great excuse to go outside, trudge through snow over a foot deep and trail blaze deep into the forest.

For $11CDN we get these for the day from Sports Rent

It looks a lot colder then it was. At this point we stripped down to our t-shirts

Instead of marked trails we wandered through the woods.

Trudging through snow is slow, tiring work.

Bragg Creek may not be in the mountains, but it beautiful none the less.

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Home Brew Time – Bradinator’s Mistake

Posted by bradinator in Beer, Hobbies, Home Brewing on February 16th, 2010

What was I thinking? If this turns out to be even mildly drinkable it will be a miracle.

So I dub this brew “Bradinator’s Mistake”

Ingredients -

  • 4.0lbs Light DME (approx)
  • 0.25lbs Corn Syrup
  • 1 oz of Tettnang Hops @ 45 min
  • 0.5lbs 120L Crystal Malt
  • 0.25lbs Roasted Barely
  • 0.125lbs Brown Malt
  • 1 tsp of Irish Moss @ 10 min
  • 1 tsp of Yeast Nutrient @ cold break
  • SafeAle S-04 (English Ale Dry Yeast)

Basic steps were steeping the grain tea at 80c for about 30 minutes, boiling 2.5g of water and mixing in the DME and Corn Syrup adding the hops and boiling for 45 minutes. Cold break went poorly and I did not reach 28c for nearly 45 minutes.

I have a great idea. Lets throw a bunch of ingredients together and hope for beer.

OG reading was between 1.034-1.036 which is what I was shooting for. I have never tried making a beer before out of primarily dry malt extract and I do not think I will ever do it again. It is far to much hassle mixing it and it does not give very good consistency either. It foams up like mad too.

Somehow I managed to avoid a boil-over.

I have no idea if this will actually turn out, but I plan to rack it to a secondary in 2 weeks and have it in bottles with 4 weeks.

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Update on Apfelwein – Gravity reading taken (finally)

Posted by bradinator in Beer, Hobbies, Home Brewing on February 12th, 2010

So over three weeks later I finally got around to taking a gravity reading on the Edwort’s Apfelwein. I wanted to wait until the fermentation had visibly calmed down and until a few days ago it was still very active. I grabbed the gravity reading last night and was happy to see its come down a long way, giving an SG reading of 0.996-0.998, or around 10% ABV. I the carboy a good swirl to stir up the yeast and plan to do once a day for the next couple to see if I can get the yeast to continue working.

The goal is still 0.990 final gravity, but that is a long way off at this point. The plan is still keeping the wine in the carboy for at least another 5 weeks, then an additional 8 weeks in bottles. I may even wait until after my trip before I rack it.

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An Experiment in Brewology – Beer Yeast

Posted by bradinator in Beer, Experiments, Hobbies, Home Brewing on February 6th, 2010

It’s been a long while since I have last done an experiment in home brewing and this is one I have been planning on doing for a long time. The lack of small 1 gallon fermentation units and the terrible state of the local home brew suppliers in my city have prevented me from attempting this.

Last week I found a decent online store which supplied several strains of dry beer yeast, plus a variety of well priced hops and managed to convert several 1 gallon apple juice containers into fermenters. The yeast arrived at my house last night and the rest will be history. Until now I have exculsively used Coopers beer yeast which has served me very well in producing beer. Still from my reading and research many state that the strain of yeast plays a very large role in the overall final product. I have to find out for myself…

The Question – How much does the strain of yeast affect the final flavours of a home brewed beer?

The Experiment -4 Different strains of yeast will be used for a single beer recipe which will be divided into four seperate 1 gallon fermenters.

The Recipe -Bradinator’s Red Ale

All the ingredients collected and ready to go

  • 3.3 lbs Pilsner LME
  • 1.0 lbs Light DME
  • 1 and 1/2 cups (approx 0.5 lbs) Crystal Malt 60L (steeped for 30 minutes at 70-80c)
  • 1 oz Amarillo Gold @ 60 minutes
  • 0.5 oz Amarillo Gold @ 30 minutes
  • 0.5 oz Amarillo Gold @ 5 minutes
  • 1/2 tsp Irish Moss @ 10 minutes
  • 1/2 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ Cold Break
  • SafeAle-04, SafeAle-05, SafeLager S-23, SafeBrew S-33

Original Gravity: 1.038 – 1.040

The Plan – 4-6 weeks in the fermenters, then an additional 2 weeks in bottles. The final products will be refridgerated for 24 hours prior to drinking and will be sampled on an individual basis (possibly 1 a night). A final gravity reading will be taken from each individual batch as I highly expect them all ferment out differently, especially the S-33.

All the beer was divided evenly and each individual yeast packet pitched.

SafeAle S-04: Described as an English Ale yeast

SafeAle S-05 - An American ale yeast, low diacetyl production

SafeLager S-23 - A german lager yeast, supposed to impart fruit like flavours

SafeBrew S-33: A robust ale yeast with high alcohol tolerance. Used in strong ales.

I am going to need to monitor this brews over the next couple days as I pitched the entire 11.5g packet of yeast into these small fermenters. To prevent the inevitable blow out that will occur in the next day or so I have all the beers pointing into a blow-off jar filled with sanitizer.

I already know this beer will explode... It's just a matter of time.

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